Bone Marrow Transplant

Bone Marrow Transplant

Bone Marrow Transplant Procedure and What To Expect

August 19, 2022 by

The bone marrow transplant procedure changes unhealthy blood cells with healthy ones. The blood-forming cells are the immature cells growing into white blood cells, platelets, and red blood cells. These are present deep in the soft tissues on the bones, known as bone marrow. After maturing they leave the bone marrow and get into the bloodstream.

Various procedures are followed before the transplant, you get chemotherapy and radiation for destroying the marrow and diseased cells. You get healthy cells afterward.

BMT procedure is not surgery. The new cells enter the bloodstream with an intravenous (IV) tube or catheter. It is like medicine or blood getting through an IV. From there no, the cells find their way into the marrow. It can take months or years for BMT recovery.

From Where Do Healthy Cells Come From?

Healthy cells that form blood in a transplant arrive from 3 sources:

  • Cord blood: Blood from the placenta and umbilical cord is collected after the baby is born.
  • Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC): Blood-forming cells from blood circulation
  • Bone marrow: The spongy tissue inside your bones.

Reasons For Bone Marrow Transplant Procedure

The bone marrow transplant donor procedure is performed when the bone marrow of a person is not healthy enough to properly function. It can be an outcome of a disease, chronic infections, or past cancer treatments. Here are some reasons for having a stem cell transplant.

  • Cancers affecting the bone marrow, like lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma.
  • Damaged bone marrow because of chemotherapy
  • Aplastic anemia is a disorder where the bone marrow doesn’t make new blood cells
  • Damaged bone marrow because of chemotherapy
  • Sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder causing misshapen red blood cells
  • Thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder where the body makes the abnormal type of hemoglobin, a vital part of your red blood cells.

Bone Marrow Transplant Types

Two main bone marrow transplant types are there. The used type is based on the reason for a transplant.

Allogeneic Transplants – These transplants use the cells from a donor. In this case, the donor should have a genetic match. Generally, the best choice is a compatible close relative, but the donor registry also has a compatible donor match.

Allogenic treatment is needed if you’ve got damaged marrow cells. But it has a higher chance of increasing complications, like GVHD. You’ll also have to put on medications for suppressing the immune system so that the body stops attacking any new cells. It increases the chances of disease.

Autologous Treatment – In Autologous transplants, the person uses their own stem cells. They generally involve cell harvesting before they damage therapy cells such as radiation or chemotherapy. After the treatment process is done, you return the cells to the body.

This transplant isn’t available always. It is usable for healthy bone marrow. However, you significantly lessen the risks of serious complications like GVHD

Things To Expect After a Bone Marrow Transplant

The bone marrow transplant success depends on how well the recipient and donor match genetically. Sometimes, finding a good match becomes very hard, especially in the case of unrelated donors.

The engraftment is monitored regularly. It completes between 10 and 28 days post initial transplant. The very first engraftment sign is rising the count of white blood cells. It shows that new blood cells start forming after the transplant.

The bone marrow transplant recovery time is three months. However, it can also take more than a year for a full recovery. The recovery process is based on many factors, like:

The Treatment Methods

  • Radiation
  • Chemotherapy
  • Donor match
  • Performance of transplant

A vast possibility is there that some transplant symptoms you get are left with you for your entire life. After treatment, you’ll get medicines to suppress the immune system so it doesn’t overdrive. It lessens the chances of the body attacking the transplanted cells and the transplanted cells attacking other body cells.

Contact Us:

Gift of Life Marrow Registry

Address: 800 Yamato Rd suite 101 Boca Raton, FL 33487
Phone: (800) 962-7769

Bone Marrow Transplant

Blood Cancer Bone Marrow Transplant – How Does It Work?

April 30, 2020 by

Blood cancer is also known as leukemia which starts forming in the bone marrow of the body. Leukemia generally begins to develop when a major issue occurs during the manufacturing process of blood cells. This abnormal creation of blood cells alters the DNA of the white blood cells thereby causing damage to it. The bone marrow in the body becomes a hotbed for excessive cell division and multiplication. This entire exercise leads to the degeneration of good blood cells, and at the same time gives rise to growth and multiplication of anomalous cells.

A time comes when the bone marrow gets filled with anomalous cells which render the white blood cells to become ineffective. White blood cells are responsible for immunity in our bodies. When they become powerless to produce antibodies due to excessive anomalous cells, our body defense system gets destroyed.

Treatment of Leukemia- Bone Marrow Transplant

Bone marrow is present inside the bones in the form of delicate tissues which is responsible for manufacturing stem cells that produce blood. Bone marrow is the epicenter where all the actions of white cells, platelets, and red cells take place. When there is an incessant formation of anomalous cells in the bone marrow, it exceeds the number of good blood cells responsible for immunity and fighting diseases and makes them unproductive.

Hence in the case of leukemia, the first aim of the doctors remains to change the stem cells of the bone marrow. This process is commonly known as a bone marrow transplant. New stem cells will help in manufacturing healthy and strong cells which can mitigate the effect of the anomalous cells.

How does Bone Marrow Transplant work?

There are a few types of bone marrow transplantation that are advised by the doctors as a mode of treatment to fight leukemia.

Here is a step by step process which is generally followed by the doctors during the treatment of blood cancer:

  • Chemotherapy

In this process, the damaged, anomalous cells in the bone marrow are destroyed. Earlier this process used to happen by using radiation thereby burning the bad cells. Now there are many methods where anomalous cells can be destroyed without using radiation like injecting chemicals, etc.

  • Injection of Fresh Blood

In this process, the patient is injected with fresh blood through pipes and tubes into the body. The aim is to replenish the body with good and robust blood cells that can help in the formation of new blood cells. Injecting fresh blood can aid the bone marrow in manufacturing new white blood cells which can help in forming antibodies against the anomalous cells.

  • Bone Marrow Transplant

The bone marrow transplant can be done in 3 possible ways- Allo, Auto, and Haploidebtical.

Sometimes donor blood may be required to do the job of producing new cells in the patient’s body. The catch is, every individual has a separate blood type consisting of a different set of proteins. In the case of using Allo method as a way of transplantation, the blood cancer patient needs to find a donor with whom the patient’s bone marrow type will match. After finding a perfect match, the doctor replaces the impacted bone marrow with the healthier, donated one.

The doctors also utilize the patient’s blood cells to replenish the patient’s bone marrow with healthy blood. This is the Auto method of blood cancer bone marrow transplant. In this case, the good blood cells are extracted and kept through cryopreservation. After the successful completion of the radiation process, the good, extracted blood cells are placed into the patient’s bloodstream through tubes.

The aim of this article is to give an overview of blood cancer and also to showcase bone marrow transplantation as its possible way of treatment.

Contact US:

Gift of Life Marrow Registry
Address:  800 Yamato Rd suite 101  Boca Raton, FL
Phone: (800) 962-7769